445: Designing the Perfect Desk

445: Designing the Perfect Desk

Author: Brian Lovin, Marshall Bock August 15, 2022 Duration: 31:27

This week, we talk about a surprising new "smart desk" being shared online, and we talk about what our dream desk would look like. In the Sidebar, Marshall shares his tips and tricks for keeping his Figma files squeaky clean.

The Sidebar:

The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to bonus content going forward! Sign up at patreon.com/designdetails.

Latest VIP Patrons:

  • Hayden Christensen
  • Akshay Dharap
  • Brian Leleux
  • Parag Jayaram
  • Alex Nelsen
  • Joon Park
  • Steve Raskin
  • Rob Gill
  • Nick Mayernik
  • Klaudia Milczarek
  • Malavika Koppula
  • Adithya Jayan

Main Topic:

This week, we talk about a surprising new "smart desk" being shared online, and we talk about what our dream desk would look like.

Job Board:

We're curating the best product design roles from the world's most design-forward companies.

👉 Design Details Job Board

Current — Current is on a mission to help people create better financial outcomes for their lives, and they’re hiring a talented senior mobile product designer with great visual design and UX skills. You’ll be involved in the full product development cycle: from early research and product strategy, to design and developer hand-off.

Glow is building the most elegant, powerful, and reliable crypto wallet. To do this, they need great designs — ones that are simple, familiar, and smart. Their small team is growing, and you’ll work closely with the team to craft new user experience patterns for interacting with crypto that will become the new normal for millions of people in the future.

Webflow — Webflow is hiring designers across their various product pillars focused on growth, collaboration, the designer, and site capabilities. This role is remote-first with the option to work in our SF office.

Materialize — Materialize is building a reactive database to disrupt batch data warehouses like Snowflake and BigQuery, and they’re looking for their first full-time, in-house designer to come in and own the product design for Materialize Web UI. Technical and developer tools experience is a huge plus!

Cool Things:

  • Brian shared Bullet Train: Five assassins aboard a fast moving bullet train find out their missions have something in common.
  • Marshall shared Prey: The origin story of the Predator in the world of the Comanche Nation 300 years ago. Naru, a skilled warrior, fights to protect her tribe against one of the first highly-evolved Predators to land on Earth.

Design Details on the Web:

Byeee!


Every week, Brian Lovin and Marshall Bock settle in for a thoughtful, often meandering chat that pulls back the curtain on how things are made. Their Design Details podcast lives in the rich space where technology and the arts intersect, focusing less on polished case studies and more on the real, sometimes messy, work of design. You’ll hear them dissect the nuances of product decisions, debate the evolving culture of creative teams, and share personal stories from their own experiences in the industry. It feels less like a lecture and more like eavesdropping on a conversation between two deeply knowledgeable friends. The discussions regularly venture into the philosophical side of craft, examining why certain choices resonate and how design shapes our daily interactions with the world. For anyone curious about the thinking behind the pixels and interfaces, this show offers a consistent, grounded perspective. Tuning in provides a sense of community and a candid look at the process, making it a staple for designers and creators who appreciate substance over flash.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Design Details
Podcast Episodes
403: The Confidence Gradient [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:47
This week, we talk about the confidence gradient, how we’ve built confidence over time, and the funny circumstances that can take us out of our element. In The Sidebar, we share our first impressions of Windows 11 and ta…
402: Margin Considered Harmful [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:31
This week, we dig into the best way to think about margin and padding in your component system. In The Sidebar, we break down the basics of design advising and angel investing.Golden Ratio Supporter:AroundAround is a bet…
401: Three Dots [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:29
This week, we talk about a ubiquitous design crutch: the three dot menu. We examine the spread of this pattern and discuss potential solutions to avoid it. In The Sidebar, we recap WWDC 2021 and dive deep into our favori…
400: Is Software Ever Finished? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:37
This week, we try to answer a simple question: is software ever finished? In The Sidebar, we talk money: compounding, investing, negotiating, planning, and more.Golden Ratio Supporter:AroundAround is a better way to vide…
399: Strong Opinions, Weakly Held [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:48
This week, we talk about how the framework Strong Opinions, Weakly Held can be used to effectively critique visual design. In The Sidebar, we recap Google I/O 2021, discussing our favorite announcements, Material You, an…
398: Proof of Curiosity [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:55
This week, we dig into two frameworks for leveling up at work: Proof of Curiosity and The Helpful Hierarchy. Whether you’re looking for more accountability, want to stand out in a job interview, or just want to be more i…
397: Customer Feedback vs. Team Intuition [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 23:29
This week, we talk about the tension between building what customers explicitly ask for versus building towards a team’s internal vision. In The Sidebar, we talk about the lack of public software critique: Why isn’t ther…
396: Career Cheat Codes [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:32
This week, we discuss the things we’ve done in our design careers that have had an outsized impact on our professional growth. In The Sidebar, we talk about the anatomy of icons and how that anatomy affects user interfac…
395: Config 2021 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:48
It’s event recap week! In this week’s episode we share our reactions to everything announced at Figma’s Config 2021. In The Sidebar, we dig into our favorite updates and the confusing head-scratchers announced at Apple’s…
394: Open Source Design ft. Joey Banks [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:37
This week, we caught up with Joey Banks to talk about contributing to open source design. In the Sidebar, we ask Joey bonus questions about ramping up in a new job, the design advocate role, and being Twitter famous.Late…